House of Espresso was previously named our Coffee Machine Cleaning Company of the Month. We are pleased to feature it as our Innovative Barista Tools Company of the Year.
As a newcomer to the UK coffee scene, House of Espresso enjoyed a breakout year in 2024, making a substantial impact on the market. Naturally, every fresh start comes with its own set of challenges. We spoke with Erwin Bos, the Founder of House of Espresso, to gain insights into the company’s journey and their experiences over the past year.
“Challenging! Opening up a new market with an innovative product like Cafelier takes time. Building the brand, educating the audience, selling the product and scaling up is a long-term project and we see our efforts slowly coming off. In an economic climate that isn’t favourable, we need to bring something that makes a big difference, and we feel that our audience is only starting to recognise this now.”
House of Espresso is the UK distributor for Cafelier, the latest innovation in coffee tech that facilitates the cleaning of coffee machines in under 10 seconds. Cafelier – an award-winning world’s first in automated devices that cleans espresso machines automatically has been described as a piece of ‘cordless wizardry’ for its ability to clean machines in a fast and cost-efficient way.
“It took time to convey that cleaning is essential for quality coffee, but once customers saw how much Cafelier saves them in time and money, the response has been fantastic. We offer both a professional and a home version, with home barista sales exceeding expectations and professional sales hitting our goal,” added Erwin.
More recently, the company has launched subscription models, making it much easier for companies and professionals to purchase the product. “For less than 50p a day, customers will have their own Cafelier, 12 brushes (one per month) and a blind filter. We are also currently discussing adding a cleaning powder to the package to complete it all,” said Erwin.
Another recent development for the company sees the opening of its European Hub in the Netherlands. The Hub will help support the demand from European customers as well as facilitate business, that because of Brexit regulations, have become slightly more complex.
Challenges in business are inevitable, but as a company that is new to the industry, House of Espresso has built reputable and solid connections and partnerships helping them to grow organically and consistently.
“As an innovative company that is new to the industry with a product that is unique, we obviously need to educate the industry and make the right connections. We made some errors along the way, spending too much or not enough on marketing and always hoping for a better ROI. However, the key has been finding the right partners that help us – from La Marzocco to Victoria Arduino and Perky Blenders. Without their help we wouldn’t have been where we are now,” said Erwin.
2025 looks very exciting for House of Espresso with lots of ideas in the pipeline. Erwin let us in on some of the company’s short and long-term goals.
“Short-term we are looking at opening new markets within the Netherlands as the EU Hub. More package deals with well-known coffee machine manufacturers in the mid-term and in the long-term, we have an innovative tech roadmap that will see the product becoming more and more of a ‘must have’ for the industry which is very exciting!
Coffee culture will always remain, it is such a great social connector and gives us some often-small moments of enjoyment! The industry will continue to evolve with consolidations and movements up and down and we will remain present to support the industry in ensuring the end product – a good cup of coffee – is as pure as possible!
Being an entrepreneur is hard work with sometimes little recognition, but when your peers acknowledge your efforts, we can only feel humble and appreciative of being selected as your Company of the Year! It’s definitely a big boost for us to keep going!”
It is evident that House of Espresso is driven by innovation, creativity and a pure passion for coffee! What started out as a side hustle and a love for coffee, is now a successful brand that is making waves in the coffee industry, influencing a new cleaning religion.
If you’re interested in finding out more about Cafelier, you can reach out to House of Espresso directly below.
For more information on the HOME and PROFESSIONAL models, please see the website below:
http://www.houseofespresso.co.uk
https://pro.cafelier.eu
https://www.instagram.com/house_of_espresso